Riding Bareback
by RangerScout
Summary: New horses and riders arrive at Pine Hollow, bringing a new perspective on life for the Saddle Club.


The new horses arrived sometime in the night, and Carole discovered them the next morning when she arrived to muck-out Starlight's stall.

"There was a bay, a pinto and a buckskin," she was telling Lisa and Stevie later that day at school.

"Who's were they?" Lisa asked. Carole shrugged,

"I don't know, I couldn't find anyone to ask."

"So we'll go see them right after school," Stevie announced, scooping up her books and leading the way to their next class.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

When the saddle club arrived at Pine Hollow, the three new horses were turned out together, grazing. Max stood with his hands on the fence, watching them. Stevie ran up to him and demanded to know who they were. Max laughed at her, then proceeded to explain.

"These three are being boarded here until their owners stable is built nearby. They're moving here from Canada, and won't arrive for a few days."

"What are their names?" Carole asked.

"The bay arabian mare is Head Over Heels, the pinto saddlebred-arab cross gelding is Dakota Scout, and the buckskin quarterhorse-morgan cross is Dragon's Fire. They didn't send their barn names, just their registered ones," Max replied.

"How did they get here?" Lisa wondered aloud.

"They were flown in, of course, and are probably still all suffering from jet lag," Max laughed as the buckskin mare sprawled out on the grass for a nap, "let them be for now, so they can get accustomed to their new surroundings."

The three girls obeyed, making their way back to the barn to tack up their own horses and go out for a ride. Later that night, after they had turned out Starlight, Belle and Prancer, they went to visit the new horses. They had all finished their naps and looked over at the girls as they approached the fence. Stevie pulled some horse crunchies from her pocket and offered them to the three. The buckskin immediately trotted over, inhaling the offered treats. The girls laughed,

"Well, it's a good thing I brought some too," Carole said. The horse stretched her neck over the fence to inspect Stevie for more treats. Lisa held up her hand for inspection, and giggled when the mare started licking her hand, then yelped in surprise as she started to nibble.

"I'm not food!" Lisa insisted, jumping back from the horse. The pinto snorted in the background, as if laughing at her.

"Hey!" They heard Max yell as at them from across the field, "bring them in for the night if you're going to stand there!" The three girls ran to grab halters and leads for the horses, entering the pasture to take the three horses back to the barn. Lisa avoided the hungry buckskin and approached the arabian mare, who looked at her as if bored and then wandered away from her when she approached.

"They don't like me!" She exclaimed in exasperation. Carole laughed as she approached the gelding. He held his head high and proud, looking down on her as she slide the halter over his nose. Stevie had the buckskin haltered and was watching Lisa chase the mare around. Head Over Heels would wait for Lisa to approach, then she would trot a distance away and then turn back to look at her. After a few rounds of this game, she let out a resigned sigh and allowed Lisa to halter her and led her quietly back to the barn. The three horses seemed nervous indoors, unfamiliar with it. They entered the stalls nervously, so Carole, Lisa and Stevie stayed to comfort them until Max sent them home.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o00o0o0oo0o00o0o0o0o0o0

The next afternoon brought with it a lesson and an appearance from the girl's arch - rival, Veronica diAngelo.

"I wouldn't touch that horse if I were you," Veronica snapped at Carole, Lisa and Stevie, who were petting the extremely friendly buckskin. "Her owners are rich, and they won't want dirty little girls like you touching they're valuable horses," Veronica's smug grin told them that she obviously knew more than they did, "but I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you mucked out their stalls." She stalked off to saddle her horse, Garnet, for the lesson.

"What does she know?" Stevie huffed angrily.

"Apparently, more than we do," Lisa replied calmly, "and I doubt she's gonna tell us."

"She won't," Carole agreed, and smiled as a thought struck her, "but Kristi will." Stevie and Lisa smiled in return and the three girls decided to ask the appointed informant after the lesson.

0o0o0ooo0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

The lesson saw a line of horses and riders waiting their turn at the (rather scary looking) course that Max had set up.

"Alright everyone, this is called a grid. It will help you to perfect your rhythm and timing, because in a grid, if you approach the first jump wrong, the situation will only get worse by the time you get to the end. It will go by extremely fast, and you will have to think much faster to make it through. Who'd like to go first?" Max stood looking at them with a grin on his face that reminded them all of a child playing with his favorite toy. Carole swallowed nervously when he looked at her, then urged Starlight to a trot, picking up a canter as she approached the series of five jumps placed so close together that Starlight would only be able to bounce from one to the next.

"Alright Carole, keep it steady, just stay in the same rhythm," Max called his last piece of advice to her before Starlight rocked back onto his haunch to take the first jump.

It wasn't until the pair crossed the last jump and were cantering away that Carole realized she had been holding her breath, and that Max was talking to her,

"That was a little too fast, but that tends to happen on the first try, Veronica, you're next."

"This will be easy," Veronica told Stevie as she took Garnet away from the group, moving straight into the arabian flashy canter. As per usual, the rider approached the first jump to fast, and by the third cavelleti Garnet was scrambling to keep balance. The two tripped unceremoniously over the forth and fifth fences, Garnet walking away with her head down in shame. Kristi and her palomino Barq were next to talk the grid, and Kristi took it slow at the trot, and in the end lacked the impulsion to jump the last fences, simply walking over. Kristi didn't seem at all bothered by this and held her proud posture as Barq walked idly back to the group. Stevie and Belle were up next, and Stevie lined Belle up with center at the steady canter. Belle leaped the first jump with ease, and then turned hard to the left as soon as she hit ground. Stevie lost a stirrup in the runout, and her body veered dangerously to the right before she managed to straighten her seat.

"You need to hold her straight Stevie, she's probably never done this before," Max called, "try again."

With more encouragement from Stevie, Belle managed to make it clumsily across the grid. Finally, it was Lisa's turn,

"Come on Prancer, lets try this," she urged Prancer forward and the pair cantered towards the jumps. Prancer's ears were pricked forward and Lisa leaned forward in anticipation. The first, second, third and fourth jumps flew by, but in the mutual excitement between horse and rider, Prancer tripped over the last jump, falling to her knees on the other side. Lisa, still in her forward position, slid over Prancer's head, landing on the ground in front of her. Carole and Stevie dismounted and ran for Lisa, terrified to lose her to another coma. However, both her and Prancer were already climbing to their feet.

"I'm okay, don't worry," Lisa told her panicked friends. Prancer was also shaking off the shock of not pulling her legs up high enough to clear the jump.

"Well, now everyone has seen how much this exercise relies on timing and tempo," Max continued after verifying that Lisa and Prancer were okay, "who would like to try next?"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"That grid was hard!" Stevie complained that Saturday morning as the girls prepared for a trail ride.

"I'm not entirely sure Prancer and I were prepared for it," Lisa agreed, setting down the book she had been studying from to brush Prancer.

"I guess Max though we all could use the challenge," Carole shrugged, "we'll do better next time."

"Well, lets just go out for a hack and not think about it," Stevie decided firmly, lifting her saddle onto Garnet's back. Lisa and Carole agreed.

They passed by the new horses on their way out, and Carole remembered they were going to interrogate Kristi about the owners. Luck struck them at that moment, and they caught Kristi leaving the feed room after talking to the stable hand, Red.

"Hi Kristi," Carole greeted casually.

"Hi, Carole, you three going out for a hack?"

"Yeah, what are you doing?"

"Oh, I was just sharing the gossip with Red, you know, about the new girls coming to Pine Hollow." Carole looked at Kristi inquisitively, not believing her luck,

"And?"

"Oh, well, they're rich, and they're having their own stable built nearby, and there are three families, and each one has one of these horses, or at least the girls do…. I heard it from Veronica's dad, he seems to know everything about them. Anyway, I told Veronica I'd meet her at the mall to do some shopping, so see you later." Kristi walked away with a toss of her hair.

"Wow, that was easy," Lisa said when she was out of earshot.

"Yeah, lets go," Stevie shrugged and mounted up, the other two girls doing likewise.

0o0o0o0o0o0oo0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

They were on their way back, talking about how much they dreaded having three more Veronicas at the stable, when they heard the sound of singing coming down the opposite path.

"I bet the owner of that Head Over Heels has the personality of a snob, if she's anything like her horse," Stevie was saying.

"Hang on, do you guys hear that?" Lisa stopped Prancer to listen to the sound drifting through the trees.

"Our mountains are very pointy, our prairies are not…" Someone was singing, more than one, by the sounds of it, and one was horribly off tune. The saddle club waited as the voices got closer, and as they turned a bend in the path, the two riders came into view. The first was astride the tall and proud Dakota Scout, short braids poking out from under her helmet, she looked comfortable in jeans and half-chaps, a green plaid cowgirl shirt completing her outfit. The second was dressed much the same, only her shirt displayed blue stripes, and she was riding the gorgeous arabian mare Head Over Heels. They were both riding bareback, and seemed completely at ease with being stirrup-less.

"Hi," the first girl greeted as cheerfully as she could, "are you three from Pine Hollow?" Carole nodded and started to make introductions as the five girls moved their horses off the path and out of the way of any passerby. She was interrupted by the sound of thundering hooves coming down the path, and then a buckskin horse came charging out of the trees, and a streak of orange that was the rider's shirt sped past them as the horse kept going.

"No Biscuit! Stop! STOP!" The girl yelled as they raced past.

"That was deja-vu in so many ways," the girl sitting on the bay said after Dragon's Fire had gone flying past.

"Yeah, lets just hope they don't hit a fence."

"Why did you put her on Biscuit again?"

"Because I wanted to ride Dakota…" The green-clad girl replied.

"At least you gave her the saddle…"

"Yeah…"

"Well, lets go get her." To the saddle clubs surprise, the two girls kicked their horses into a canter after the runaway horse, disappearing into the trees. The last thing they heard was the sound of hooves and one girl calling,

"Hang on Beaner! We're coming!"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Well, there you have it. Chapter one. Umm… I do not own The Saddle Club, any songs by the Arrogant worms, or the horses in this chapter (they are actually real horses). Hope you enjoyed it.

-Rangerscout


End file.
